Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Academy, Richelle Mead does.

Rose's POV

I walked up the steps to the porch, shaking the snow off my boots as i did. A thick scent, both spicy and sweet, hung in the air. Something about it felt familiar, but before I could identify it, a voice suddenly spoke to me out of the shadows.

"Hey, little dhampir."

Startled, I realized someone was standing on the porch. A tall guy - a Moroi - leaned against the wall not far from the door. He brought a cigarette up to his mouth, took a long drag, and then dropped it to the ground. He put it out with his foot and gave a crooked smile at me. That was the scent, I realized. Clove cigarettes. Cautiously, I stopped and crossed my arms as I took him in. He was a little shorter than Dimitri but wasn't as lanky as some Moroi guys. A long, charcoal coat - probably made out of some insanely cashmere-wool blend - fit his body exceptionally well, and the leather dress shoes he wore indicated that he was practically made out of money. He had silky brown hair that looked like it had been purposely styled to appear a little unkempt, and his eyes were either blue or green - the dim light was not enough for me to know for sure. His face was cute, I guess. I pegged him to be a couple years older than me but younger than Dimitri. From his entire outfit, I think he just came from a dinner party.

"Yes?" I asked, my tone clearly unwelcome.

His eyes swept over my body. I was used to the attention given from Moroi guys. I was curry and more filled compared to the tall, skinny, model-like Moroi girls. But it was usually not so obvious. And I usually wasn't bundled up in winter clothing and sporting a black eye either.

He shrugged. "Just saying hi, that's all."

I waited for more, but all he did was stuff his hands into his pockets. With a shrug of my own, I took a couple steps forward.

"You smell good." He says abruptly.

I stopped walking again and gave him a puzzled look, which ply made his sly smile grow bigger.

"I… um, what?"

"You smell good," he repeated.

"Are you joking? I've been sweating all day. I'm disgusting." I wanted to walk away from him and go to my room that I share with Lissa to shower, but there was something eerily compelling about this guy. I didn't find him that attractive, okay maybe he was kinda hot. Hot? Knock it off Rose. I guess I was just suddenly interested in talking to him.

"Sweat isn't a bad thing," he says, leaning his head against the wall and looking upward thoughtfully. "Some of the best things in life happen while sweating," he continued, with a smug smirk occupying his face. "Yeah, if you get too much of it and it gets old and stale, then it turns pretty gross. But on a beautiful woman? Intoxicating. If you could smell things a vampire does, you'd know what I'm talking about. Most people mess it all up and drown themselves in perfume. Perfume can be good… especially if you get one that goes with your chemistry. But you only need a hint. Mix about 20 percent of that with 80 percent of your own perspiration… mmm." He tilted his head to the side and looked at me.

"Dead sexy."

What the hell? Why is this guy giving me a hygiene lesson? I suddenly remembered Dimitri and his aftershave. That had been dead sexy, but I certainly wasn't going to tell this guy about it.

"Well, thanks for the hygiene lesson, but I don't own any perfume, and I'm going to go shower all this hot sweaty action off me. Sorry," I say.

He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and offered it to me. He moved a step closer, but it was enough for me to smell something else on him. Alcohol. I shook my head at the cigarettes, and he taped one out for himself.

"Bad habit?" I asked, watching him light it.

"One of many," he replied. He inhaled deeply. "You here with St. Vlad's?"

"Yup."

"Ah, high school girl. So you're going to be a guardian when you grow up."

"Obviously."

He exhaled smoke, and I watched it drift away into the darkness of the night. Heightened vampire senses or no, it was a wonder he could smell anything around those cloves.

"How long until you grow up?" he asked. "I might need a guardian," he says suggestively.

"I graduate in the spring. But I'm already spoken for." I say, contemplating if I should say sorry, but then again why should I be sorry for not being able to be this strangers guardian compared to Lissa, my best friend?

Surprise flickered in his eyes. "Yeah? Who's the lucky guy?"

"She's Vasilisa Dragomir."

His face brightened up with recognition. "Ah." A huge grin plastered on his face. "I knew you were trouble as soon as I saw you. You're Janine Hathaway's daughter."

"I'm Rose Hathaway," I corrected, no wanting to be defined by my mother.

"Adrian Ivashkov," he tells me, extending a gloved hand to me, which I hesitantly took.

"And you think I'm trouble," I muttered. The Ivashkovs were a royal family, one of the wealthiest and most powerful royal families in the Moroi and Dhampir society. They were the kind of people who though they could get anything they wanted and walk over those in their way. No wonder he was so arrogant.

He laughed. He had a nice laugh, rich and almost melodious. It made me think of warm caramel, dripping from a spoon. "Well, Each of our reputations precedes us."

I shook my head. "You don't know anything about me. I only know of your family. I don't know anything about you."

"You want to?" He asked tauntingly.

"I'm not into older guys." Bullshit.

"I'm twenty. Not that much older."

"I have a boyfriend." It was a small lie. I don't think I could call Mason my boyfriend yet, but I hoped Adrian would leave me alone if he thought I was taken.

"Funny you didn't mention that right away," Adrian mused. "He didn't give you that black eye, did he?"

I felt the warm blush creep onto my cheeks, even in the cold. I'd been hoping he wouldn't notice the eye, which was stupid. With his vampire eyes, he'd probably noticed as soon as I stepped onto the porch.

"He wouldn't be alive if he did. I got it during … practice. I mean, I'm training to be a guardian. Our classes are always rough."

"That's pretty hot," he says taking a step to decrease the distance between us. He dropped his second cigarette to the ground and put it out with his foot.

"Punching me in the eye?"

"Well, no. Of course not. I meant that the idea of getting rough with you is hot. I'm a big fan of full contact sports." He says, a smug smirk making it's way onto his face.

"I don't doubt it," I say dryly. He was arrogant and presumptuous, yet there was something forcing or luring me to be in his presence.

The sound of footsteps behind me made me turn. Mia came around the path and walked up the steps. When she was us, she suddenly stop.

"Great," I muttered. "Hey Mia."

She glanced between the two of us.

"Another guy?" she asked. From her tone, you would have assumed I had my own harem of men.

Adrian gave me a questioning, but amused look. I gritted my teeth and decided not to dignify that with a response. I opted for uncharacteristic politeness.

"Mia, this is Adrian Ivashkov."

Adrian turned on the same charm he;d used on me. He shook her hand. "Always a pleasure to meet a friend of Rose's." He spoke as if he and I had known each other since childhood.

"We aren't friends." I hissed. So much for politeness.

"Rose only hangs out with guys and psychopaths," states Mia. Her voice carried the usual scorn she harboured for me, but there was a look on her face that showed Adrian had clearly caught her interest.

"Well," he says cheerfully, "since I'm both of those things, that would explain why we're such good friends."

"You and I aren't friends either," I tell him.

"Always playing hard to get, huh little dhampir?" Adrian says, chuckling.

"She's not that hard to get." Mia says, clearly upset that Adrian's paying more attention to me. "Just ask half the guys at our school."

"Yeah," I retorted, "and you can ask the other half about Mia. If you can do a favour for her, she'll do lots of favours for you." When she'd declared war on Lissa and me, Mia had managed to get a couple of guys to tell everyone that I had done some pretty sexual things with them. The ironic thing was that she'd gotten them to lie for her by sleeping with herself.

A flicker of embarrassment passed over her face, but she held her ground.

"Well, at least I don't do them for free." She says, defending herself. I turn my head to see Adrian making some cat noises. Real mature.

"Are you done?" I ask her. "It's past your bedtime, and the grown ups would like to talk now." I tell her, aiming at her childish looks.

Mia's youthful looks were a sore point with her, one I frequently enjoyed exploiting.

"Yeah, yeah," she says crisply. Her cheeks turned pink, intensifying her porcelain-doll appearance. "I have better things to do anyway." She says, turning towards the door, then paused with her hand resting on the doorknob. She glanced towards Adrian. "Her mom gave her that black eye, you know." Wow, low blow.

She went inside. The fancy glass doors swung shut behind her. Leaving Adrian and I standing there in silence.

"Your mom?"

"Oh shut up."

"You're one of those people who either has soul mates or mortal enemies, aren't you? No in-between. You and Vasilisa are probably like sisters, huh?"

"I guess."

"How is she?" What is he doing asking about her?

"What do you mean?" I ask him, getting defensive. So that's what all the flirting was for. To get to Lissa.

He shrugged, and if I didn't know better, I'd say that he was overdoing his casualness. "I don't know. I mean, I know you guys ran away… and there was stuff with her family and Victor Dashkov…"

I feel myself flinch at the mention of Victor.

"So?

"Dunno. Just figured it might be a lot for her to, you know, handle."

I studied him carefully, wondering what he was getting at. I decided avoidance was the best tactic just now.

"I've got to go."

"Are you sure?" He sounded only mildly disappointed. Mostly he seemed as cocky and amused as before. Something about him still intrigued me, but whatever it was, it wasn't enough to combat everything I was feeling, or to risk discussing Lissa. "I thought it was time for the grown up to talk. Lots of grown up things I'd like to talk about." He says, hinting on something.

"It's late, I'm tired, and your cigarettes are giving me a headache," I growl.

"I suppose that's fair. Some women think they make me look sexy."

"Yeah, well those women are either blind or they have breathing problems. I think you smoke them so you have something to do while thinking up your next witty line."

He choked, laughing at my witty remark. "Rose Hathaway, I can't wait to see you again. If you're this charming while tired and annoyed and this gorgeous while bruised and in ski clothes, you must be devastating at your peak.

"If by 'devastating' you mean that you should fear for your life, then yeah. You're right." I jerked open the door. "Good night, Adrian."

"Hey wait up! I'll walk you to your room." He says, grabbing my wrist. I feel a small jolt of electricity from his touch but quickly release myself from his grip.

"No need. I'm a big girl, I can handle myself." I reassure him and continue on walking. I hear his footsteps, indicating that he was still following me.

"Is there something you want?" I ask him, exasperated.

"Other than you? Nothing." He says, winking at me. "Look, nothing you say will get me to walk away. Like it or not, I'm walking you to your room. And I'm pretty persistent when I want to be so no use in arguing." I sigh in frustration, what does this guy want from me?

"Fine, come on then. But try anything and you'll lose an arm." I tell him. He chuckles and nods his head, clearly amused.

"So, little dhampir. What caused your mom to give you that black eye?"

"I told you, we were training and she messed up her target." I tell him, but I knew she didn't 'mess up'. She the 'great Janine Hathaway', she couldn't mess up. Or at least she couldn't mess up this bad.

"But she's Janine Hathaway." He says, thinking the same thing I was. He shook his head in disapproval. "Are you sure she messed up? Maybe you weren't quick enough to dodge the punch. As far as this shows, I could probably take you down!" He says, trying to lighten up the mood.

Is he serious? He's delusional. Okay, maybe he was taller than me and people would categorize me as 'petite', but I had guardian training and Adrian, well he had servants doing whatever he wanted since he was a kid.

"In your dreams." I tells him dismissively. Taking that as a challenge, he brings me down and holds my hands down, using his elbows so that he doesn't crush me with his weight. He has a grin plastered on his face, clearly proud that he won. In a flash, I flip us over and straddle his waist and pin him to the ground, my hands gripping on his so that he couldn't flip us over.

"Better luck next time."

"So there'll be a next time huh?"

I roll my eyes and a thought comes to mind. I lean in so that my mouth is completely align with his ear, my breaths making him shudder. "In your dreams, Ivashkov." I say with a seductive voice. I hear him moan and I pull back just a bit to see his face.

"With this position, I'm sure I'll be dreaming about this." He says lowly. Just as I'm about to give him a sarcastic remark, I hear someone gasp. I turn my head to see Mason there gaping at the sight in front of him. I clear my throat and get up, Adrian soon following behind.

"Mason, it's not what-" I tell him, afraid that he'll assume something else.

"It's fine, Rose." He says, cutting me off. I look curiously at him and walk towards him. I intertwine my hands with his, seeing Mason surprised for a second but then welcomes it.

"Adrian, this is my boyfriend. Mason Ashford." I tell Adrian. I see Mason's eyebrows raised when I said he was my boyfriend, but smiles proudly. "Mason, this is Adrian Ivashkov." Adrian looks dumbfounded but then smiles and shakes Mason's hand. Mason just has his lips in a firm line and stares at Adrian.

"So this is the lucky guy. Some girl you have there." Adrian says, taking me off guard. Never thought he would say that.

"Yeah, I'm very lucky." Mason says, slipping his arm around my waist, pulling me closer and kissing my hair.

"Well, I should be going. See you later little dhampir. Mason." He says, nodding at us. Mason nods back and I smile. When Adrian's body disappears along the halls, I free myself from Mason's grip and looked at him curiously.

"So…" he starts off awkwardly, "boyfriend huh?" he says suggestively, waggling his eyebrows. I laugh and punch his shoulder playfully.

"Nice try, Ashford. I said that just so Adrian would go away."

"AHA I HEARD THAT!" I hear Adrian shout. Dammit he found out.

"By what I saw before you guys saw me, it looks like you didn't want him to go away." He says, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms in front of his chest, looking like a kid who lost his favourite toy.

"Oh, is someone jealous?" I said, taunting him.

"Every guy who gets to make you smile makes me jealous. You know you have that power over me, Rosie Posie." I glare at him when he mentions his nickname which I hated, but smile and hug him. Dimitri already moved on, so should I.

"Nobody can replace you, you know that." I whisper, kissing his cheek but not releasing him from my hug. I wasn't lying, even though I do love Dimitri, which I am trying to move on, nobody can ever replace Mason. I hear Mason sigh and hug me back, burying his face in my hair causing me to giggle.

"I know, I just-"

"It's okay Mase. Let's just go before Lissa worries too much." Hearing me say that, Mason's eye bulge and he practically runs, tugging at my hand. I laugh and jog to my room that I share with Lissa, where I find Lissa, Christian and Eddie sitting on the floor.

"There you are! I was almost going to get Christian and Eddie to go search for you." Lissa exclaims, hugging me.

"Calm down Liss. I was just walking around the ski lodge."

"Really, because from what I've heard, you were with Adrian Ivashkov." She says, almost accusingly to me. Here we go.

"He's got a bad reputation," warned Lissa.

"Yeah," said Christian. "He goes through a lot of girls."

"Will you guys lay off? I barely know him!"

"So you do know him!" Eddie joins in, to which I glare at him.

"I talked to him for like 10 minutes! And that's only because he was blocking my way inside and he walked me back but when Mason showed up, I ditched him for Mason." I tell them.

"Mason? You knew about this?" Lissa exclaimed, pointing a finger at Mason.

"Um, yeah. Rose introduced me to him. Which reminds me, why were you guys in that position when I found you?"

"Position? I can already imagine Adrian all over you Rosie." Christian says until I punch him on the shoulder, earning a disapproving look from Lissa.

"What? He said he could beat me in a fight, and I just wanted to prove him wrong. No way could he beat a Hathaway. And Mase, I already pointed out that I didn't want anything to do with him." I tell him, raising my eyebrows suggestively while intertwining our fingers together.

"Oh no Rose, you can't sweet talk your way out of this." Masons says sternly, backing away from me so I just sigh in defeat.

"Honestly he was just blocking my way and when I went inside he insisted on walking me to my room. And when he mentioned that he could beat me in a fight, I dissed him but then he pounced and brought me down. So I pinned him on the ground and Mason came and I just went with him." I explain, inhaling after the explanation. After I see everyone nodding in consideration, my curiosity peaked.

"Who told you anyways?"

"Mia Renaldi." I hear Eddie say.

"Oh, since when do you hang out and believe with Mia?" I say defensively, they knew what Mia was doing to me and Lissa. What the hell were they doing talking to her?

"Mia told us and I thought it wasn't true but then I saw you. Doing whatever you were doing right in front of my eyes." Mason says, rolling his eyes. Whatever, let them think what they want to.

"Since you all are buddy-buddy with Mia, why don't you go to her room. I don't have time for this and I want to shower." I hiss, although I feel bad when I see Lissa's face in shock. I smile at her reassuringly, to tell her that I'm not mad at her. As for the boys, well they can piss off.

After showering, I feel so much more relaxed and calm. I get to the room to find it empty, with only Mason sitting on my bed. Huh, Lissa's probably sleeping at Christian's room for the night. I clear my throat which makes him turn around and look at his feet nervously. I walk and put down my towel down on the bed and just stand in front of him with my arms in front of my chest.

"Sorry I, uh, jumped all over you about Adrian earlier."

I grab his hand and give it a light squeeze. "It's okay. I know Mia can tell some pretty convincing stories. And with the way you found us, well it was hard to think otherwise."

"Yeah… but even if you were with him, it's not like I have any right…"

I stared at him, surprised to see his usual brash countenance turn shy. "No Mason. You do. You're my best friend and I know you're just looking out for me." I smile at him and stepped forward to embrace him."Thanks, for being a really good friend." I tell him. A huge smile was now plastered onto Mason's face and he kissed my hair one more time. I tried to stifle a yawn, but failed miserably. Chuckling, Mason brings me to my bed and lays down next to me, facing towards me.

"Go to sleep Rosie Posie, I'll fight of the bad dreams." He says, just in time for me to hear until I'm swallowed by the darkness.

AN: First chapter is up! Please review, it'll make my day! Sorry if it's a bit OOC, but yeah! Review!